Suburbs not likely to get U.S. flood aid

June 24, 2004|By M. Daniel Gibbard, Tribune staff reporter.

Residents, businesses and towns hit by last month's flooding in Lake and Cook Counties apparently will have to soak up the cleanup and prevention costs after state officials said Wednesday the damage was not severe enough to apply for federal aid.

Meanwhile, 14 counties in Wisconsin, including Kenosha, were declared federal disaster areas last week, making them eligible for U.S. relief dollars.

"We're very disappointed," said Mayor Don Rudny of Gurnee. "Anybody who knows the situation would say there's a fairness question."

Gurnee's last official damage estimate was $1.2 million, but that did not include business lost since the flood or the $200,000 to $300,000 that the village spent in flood-prevention efforts, Rudny said.

The mayor was particularly exasperated that the village's hard work in putting out sandbags to hold off floodwaters may now be preventing officials from recouping costs.

"A lot of communities put a big effort into mitigating the flood damage, and when we're successful, we get penalized for it," Rudny said. "And that doesn't make any sense."

In Des Plaines, which also had extensive flooding, Mayor Tony Arredia told the City Council on Monday that the town would not recoup the $350,000 it spent.

Like Rudny, he said it was unfair for his town to lose out on aid as a result of its flood-fighting preparations.

Illinois officials said there was nothing they could do because the damage was not severe enough to qualify for federal aid, which would have made residents and businesses eligible for grants or low-interest loans.

Inspectors from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency assessed the costs and determined that they would not reach federal aid levels, said spokeswoman Patti Thompson.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared Lake County and six townships in Cook County state disaster areas May 26, which usually is the first step toward applying for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But in the end, things did not get as bad as expected, Thompson said.

"At the time the governor made the state declaration, the crests were still supposed to be higher than the [record-setting] 1986 floods, and everyone was very conscious about what that could mean for the damage," she said.

Thompson said that for state and local governments to get federal money, the costs to public property and infrastructure must be $1.11 for each resident of the state.

For Illinois, that would mean sustaining about $13 million in public damage. But the combined public costs in Lake, Cook and four Downstate counties were about $4.4 million, or 35 cents per resident, she said.

On the private side, Thompson noted the relatively small amount of damage to homes: none destroyed, one with major damage and 64 with minor damage.

However, a FEMA official said Wednesday that there is not an automatic threshold that triggers aid.

"There's no magic formula," said Vince Davis, spokesman for FEMA in Chicago.

"You've got communities saying, `We've been wounded, why can't we get federal help?' But we can't release any funds without a federal disaster declaration, and the state has not asked for one," Davis said.

The state could still ask for help and has until early July to do so, he said.

"Would [the damage] have been bad enough to garner federal assistance? Possibly, and possibly not," he said. "If you asked and didn't get it, then you would know. But that's their call."

At Grand Animal Hospital, 4617 Olde Grand Ave., Gurnee, workers still were trying to get the business ready for reopening. Co-owner Kris Humphres said the hospital has lost at least $80,000 in business since floodwaters forced it to close last month.

"Other places had the same flood, but they were given relief and we were not. I don't know why that is," she said.

Elmer Fallos, who lives in the 900 block of Emerald Avenue in Gurnee, said the flooding in his basement ruined $10,000 worth of appliances, in part because his two-story house has separate furnaces, air conditioners and water heaters for each floor.

Fallos does not have flood insurance, but he did not expect government help.

"We knew we weren't going to get anything," he said. "But I picked to live here."